The notion of the romantic vampire is transcended to chilling and even heartbreaking effect in this stellar anthology of tales collected by Golden (Tin Men). The best is Laird Barron’s atmospheric, Alaska-set “In a Cavern, in a Canyon,” in which one woman examines her past as she confronts a very present horror. Other highlights include Michael Koryta’s “On the Dark Side of Sunlight Basin,” in which one vampire meets his match; Seanan McGuire’s dark and lovely “Something Lost, Something Gained”; Brian Keene’s restrained, heart-wrenching “The Last Supper,” in which a vampire’s loneliness eclipses his need to feed in a plague-devastated world; and Rio Youers’s “Separator,” set in a typhoon-devastated Philippines where a land developer gets a brutal taste of local legend. These stories move smoothly from the subtle to the horrifying, often shot through with a thick vein of irony, and there’s enough variety and talent to make up for the few stories that aren’t quite as strong. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. (Oct.)